1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein generally relate to a connector and power supply unit used for the purpose of supplying electric power.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electric equipment generally receives electric power from a power supply to operate. For the purpose of supplying electric power, connectors are typically used to supply electric power from the power supply to electric equipment. Such connectors include a male-type connector having one or more male pins and a female-type connector having one or more female sockets, which mate with each other to establish electrical connection. This configuration is disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2.
In recent years, the supply of direct-current high-voltage electric power for local-area electric power transmission has been under study as a measure against global warming. With such a power supply arrangement, power loss is small at the time of voltage conversion and electric power transmission, and, also, there is no need to use thick cables. Especially for information devices such as servers, such a power supply arrangement is believed to be desirable due to their large consumption of electric power.
Caution should be taken for the electric power that is supplied to electric equipment because direct contact by a human body is hazardous. In particular, a direct-current electric power has no frequency dependency, which may require greater caution.
Manual work is performed for the installment and maintenance of equipment. When direct-current electric power is used for information devices such as servers, thus, connectors used at the point of electrical connection may need to have a special design that is different from that of normal connectors used for commercial power supply.
Further, a power supply unit having a plurality of connectors is typically used to supply electric power to loads, e.g., information devices such as servers.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-82208
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-31301